Two new cities listed as among France’s cleanest: Where are they?

An association that ranks France’s ‘cleanest’ cities has released its rankings for 2025, with two new locations being given a maximum ‘five-star’ rating. 

Antibes and Le Havre join the five existing cities ranked as the cleanest in France by the association des villes pour la propreté urbaine (AVPU), reports French media 20 Minutes. 

They join Nice, Niort, Saint-Brieuc, Cannes and Metz at the top level.

In contrast, Paris failed to receive a single star, however this is more due to the size and complications of creating a city-wide plan than the actual levels of cleanliness.

How does the ranking work?

Cities are given between one and five stars by the AVPU as part of the annual ranking, based on not only how clean they are but how invested they are in keeping locations tidy. 

For example, a city receives one star for analysing cleanliness issues, two stars for coming up with a plan of action to keep public areas clean, three stars for implementing it, etc. 

Locations only receive the fifth star when they ‘Invest in all areas of urban cleanliness and achieving results,’ says the AVPU on its website. 

As the ranking is based on this behind-the-scenes action – also taking into account how stringent local authorities are at implementing penalties for those who litter, as opposed to how many people actually do it – it can lead to some surprises. 

For example, five-star Metz may not be cleaner to the naked eye than four-star equivalents Pau or Nantes, but a four-year old there was reportedly fined €145 for littering – a sign the city takes cleanliness seriously.

Angers, a city widely praised for being one of the cleanest in France, has only three stars, the same as Parisian suburb Montreuil (that can sometimes suffer from the same cleanliness issues as the capital). 

Not all cities are ranked by the AVPU, with only some 130 areas across France being given a rating.